The present invention relates generally to shopping for goods and services, and more particularly, to a method and system for interactively shopping for groceries, especially on the Internet, where the user, among other things, is offered the opportunity to create a shopping list, shop for items from the list at one or more selected Grocery Stores, arrange for pick up or delivery of the selected items and payment, print the list, or download the list into a personal digital assistant or like device for use in the store, etc.
Recently, a wide range of interactive devices has been developed to provide information to a variety of users via communications networks. These interactive devices include, for example, computers connected to various computer on-line services, interactive kiosks, interactive television systems, a variety of other wired and wireless devices, such as personal data assistants (PDA's), and the like. In particular, the popularity of computer on-line services has grown immensely in popularity over the last decade. Computer on-line services are provided by a wide variety of different companies.
In general, most computer on-line services are accessed via the Internet. The Internet is a global network of computers. One popular part of the Internet is the World Wide Web, or the “Web.” The World Wide Web contains computers that display graphical and textual information. Computers that provide information on the World Wide Web are typically called “Web sites.” A Web site is defined by an Internet address that has an associated electronic page, often called a “home page.” Generally, a home page is an electronic document that organizes the presentation of text, graphical images, audio and video into a desired display. These Web sites are operated by a wide variety of entities, which are typically called “providers.”
A user may access the Internet via a dedicated high-speed line or by using a personal computer (PC) equipped with a conventional modem or a variety of other wired and wireless devices. Special interface software, called “browser” software, is installed within the PC or other access device. When the user wishes to access the Internet by normal telephone line, an attached modem is automatically instructed to dial the telephone number associated with the local Internet host server. The user can then access information at any address accessible over the Internet. Two well-known web browsers, for example, are the Netscape Navigator browser marketed by Netscape Communications Corporation and the Internet Explorer browser marketed by Microsoft Corporation.
Information exchanged over the Internet is typically encoded in HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) format. The HTML format is a scripting language that is used to generate the home pages for different content providers. In this setting, a content provider is an individual or company that places information (content) on the Internet so that others can access it. As is well known in the art, the HTML format is a set of conventions for marking different portions of a document so that each portion appears in a distinctive format. For example, the HTML format identifies or “tags” portions of a document to identify different categories of text (e.g., the title, header, body text, etc.). When a web browser accesses an HTML document, the web browser reads the embedded tags in the document so it appears formatted in the specified manner.
An HTML document can also include hyperlinks, which allow a user to move from one document to another document on the Internet. A hyperlink is an underlined or otherwise emphasized portion of text that, when selected using an input device such as a mouse, activates a software connection module that allows the user to jump between documents or pages (i.e., within the same Web site or to other Web sites). Hyperlinks are well known in the art, and have been sometimes referred to as anchors. The act of selecting the hyperlink is often referred to as “clicking on” the hyperlink.
Some grocery shopping utilizing Internet-based web sites has been available for five or more years, allowing the user to select and purchase for delivery, or pick up, items offered by retailers. Typically these web sites have either been specific to a particular retailer, traditional or web-based, or, more recently, for a limited number of retailers in a particular geographic area.
Despite the availability of these shopping methods, it is well known that users have frequently been unwilling to use these methods for their routine grocery shopping. For example, users must utilize a cumbersome and rigidly structured hierarchical menu to select items for purchase. This approach is counter to the way most people approach grocery shopping, identifying items individually or by relatedness, such as selecting ingredients from a recipe. Additionally, users have been unable to price-compare like items between stores, making it difficult to decide where to shop. In addition users often wish to price-compare brands in the same store quickly, a feature not heretofore readily provided.
Furthermore, it is rarely within the users' coupon resources to locate the specific coupons for most or all of the items on their grocery list for a particular shopping experience. To date, users must select coupons from the newspaper or from Internet-based coupon sources and manually match the coupons to their purchases. This approach of manually matching coupons to purchases results in significant missed opportunities for users. In addition, when users have matched the coupons with their purchases there have been limited methods for redeeming the coupons, except at the time of purchase by physical presentation of the coupon.
Most importantly, Internet grocery shopping has based its revenue generation on delivery fees and charging more for the products purchased by the user. Most, if not all, grocers create separate warehouses for their Internet-based grocery establishments, and therefore, offer a limited selection of items at a higher cost to the user. As evidenced by the number of failures of Internet grocery shopping web sites this arrangement has been largely unsuccessful. Further evidence of the difficulties with existing methods has been the limited number of users attracted to grocery shopping on the Internet.
Finally, users have not been presented with opportunities to utilize other tools to make the shopping effort more efficient and effective. Particularly, users have had to manually maintain reminders, capture items for purchase on scraps of paper or elsewhere to reuse what they need. They have been required to transcribe items required from their own recipes and meal plans onto the previously available web sites. Similarly, they have been required to transcribe quantities from recipes, meal plans and weekly menu plans which can be time consuming and result in items being missed.